Dr. Jeannine Jordan, Concert Organist

Posts tagged ‘Hymn-a-thon’

Alright, in 25 words (or 140 “tweetable” characters) or less, what is it that we should do to find those patrons eager to help composers compose, performers perform, and interested in preserving the great music of the past?

Decide what it is you really want to have happen with you and your specific art. Directing, playing, composing, recruiting, teaching…

Give yourself a test and ask if you really think it is important for people now and for those yet to come.

When you decide it really is that important, you may surprise yourself your new found mission.

With confidence in your mission, doors will begin to open to people who want to be a part of your dream

If you really believe it’s important, don’t hesitate, tell people about it.

Your enthusiasm whether quiet or loud will carry the strength to move people into motion.

One small warning, there will be people, believe it or not, who will want to immediately douse your enthusiasm. Don’t let them do it. If your idea has come this far, don’t waste your time on people who want to drag you down.

It’s interesting how people that have a great attitude and belief end up being with people that share the same thoughts.

Think big. You have the skills and experience to do something great.

This is not make-believe blather saying “you can do anything you want”. You can’t. But you can do great things with the skills, experience, talent, and abilities that you already posess. You just need to release them upon the waiting world and “ask and you shall receive”.

Don’t wait to get started. What idea do you have to further the arts in your community?
* A scholarship program for organ/piano students
*A school for vocal training with results that will manifest themselves in 6 years.
*A new addition to or refurbishment of the church organ

*A new set of bells for your music program
*A new grand piano for the sanctuary
*A performing arts series for your entire community

Take that little seed, that idea has been smoldering for years, that plan that would provide so much worth for your community, and let it explode. Then ask a patron or four to help you get there, to realize that dream, to keep music alive in our churches, schools, and concert halls today and in the future.

The members of the Music Ministry of our small mission church, St. Bede Episcopal in Forest Grove, Oregon have a vision and goal of not only providing excellence in our worship music today but building on and creating an outstanding music ministry for the future.

With that in mind, we’d like to ask for your patronage – a gift large or small to our upcoming Hymn-a-thon Music Ministry fundraising event on June 7th. To be a patron of the worship arts at St. Bede Episcopal Church, and help us reach our goal of $4,000, please click here to visit our gofundme site. All contributions will be matched by an anonymous patron.

We thank you for your support, encouragement, and generosity.

Dr. Jeannine Jordan enjoys a career as a church musician and concert organist. She and her husband, David Jordan, media artist, created and perform two inspiring organ and multi-media concert experiences, Bach and Sons and From Sea to Shining Sea throughout the US and in Europe.

What do a Sara Levy, Prince Esterházy, an internationally-known sports broadcaster, an organ student, a church member, and my parents all have in common? They support, protect, or champion someone or something, such as an institution, event, or cause. They were/are patrons of the arts.

Our Bach and Sons concert begins with an introduction by a woman named Sara Levy. I hadn’t heard of her until we did the research for Bach and Sons program, but I discovered that it is she who was greatly responsible for collecting and preserving much of Johann Sebastian Bach’s music, saving it from being used as wrapping paper or worse. Thanks to her wisdom and her patronage, we can hear today the magnificent music of JS Bach in concert halls and churches.

In the mid-1750s, The Esterházys were one of the wealthiest and most influential families of the Austrian empire and boasted a distinguished record of supporting music. In 1761 Franz Joseph Haydn began his musical service at the Esterházy court. The patronage by the Esterházy family proved decisive for Haydn’s career, and he remained in their service until his death. Thanks to the patronage of the Esterházys, Haydn was able to compose in a stable, supportive environment providing for us today a wealth of much-loved concert and church repertoire.

The point of these historical examples is to say that we need and truly appreciate the important work and contribution by patrons to keep our art alive and ensure that it will go on into the future. It’s what patrons of the arts do: they make sure composers can compose, performers perform, and that the great music of the past never dies.

In today’s world, most of us don’t have a courtly patron, however, patrons are all around us. They are people from every walk of life who are willing and interested in supporting our music and art.

Would you have thought that a professional sports broadcaster would be the sponsor of a fine arts program?

Could you imagine a gift to your music ministry from a person who had never set foot in your church?

Would you think of finding a patron among your students? A person who might provide a scholarship for another student.

Would you be surprised by a “matching gift” for a church music fund raiser? A gift from that person who wants to remain anonymous that would double the amount raised.

And what about that $110,000.00 piano for the sanctuary. Would a single gift by one generous patron cover the cost? Yes!

Join millions of other patrons and become a patron today. The members of the Music Ministry of our small mission church, St. Bede Episcopal in Forest Grove, Oregon have a vision and goal of not only providing excellence in our worship music today but building on and creating an outstanding music ministry for the future.

With that in mind, we’d like to ask for your patronage – a gift large or small to our upcoming Hymn-a-thon Music Ministry fundraising event on June 7th. To be a patron of the worship arts at St. Bede Episcopal Church, and help us reach our goal of $4,000, please click here to visit our gofundme site. All contributions will be matched by an anonymous patron.

Like this:

The members of the Music Ministry of our small mission church, St. Bede Episcopal in Forest Grove, Oregon have a vision and goal of not only providing excellence in our worship music today but building on and creating an outstanding music ministry for the future.

With that in mind, we’d like to ask for your patronage – a gift large or small to our upcoming Hymn-a-thon Music Ministry fundraising event on June 7th. To be a patron of the worship arts at St. Bede Episcopal Church, and help us reach our goal of $4,000, please click here to visit our gofundme site. All contributions will be matched by an anonymous patron.

We thank you for your support, encouragement, and generosity.

Dr. Jeannine Jordan is the Minister of Music and Organist at St. Bede Episcopal Church. She also enjoys a career as a concert organist presenting throughout the USA and in Europe the organ and multi-media concert experiences, Bach and Sons and From Sea to Shining Sea with her husband, David Jordan, media artist.

In the Minneapolis Airport there is a poster showing a picture of Daniel in the Lion’s Den surrounded by hungry but slightly confused looking lions. The caption is: “We in the 21st Century are not the first people to feel stressed.”

Today in church music we find ourselves in a situation that is not much different than it was centuries ago. We are not the first people to feel that there is not enough support to continue a fine music program/ministry.

The Hymn-A-Thon is such a great idea, I wish it were mine, but it’s not. It has been done before. However the purpose behind the Hymn-a-thon at our church is what is different from some others. Being a small parish, we as many, due to limited financial resources were faced with drastically cutting back the music ministry. However, whether you are in a large or small parish, there is a core of people who really believe the music ministry is very important and want to see it continue. It is their belief that music helps people worship and become closer to God.

Before you give up and think that your church is too small or too something else to attempt a Hymn-a-thon, let’s look at this idea more carefully.

First, let’s talk about patrons for a moment.

The term “patron” goes back to the medieval ages and through the Renaissance, feudal Japan, Southeast Asian Kingdoms, Aristocracy and right through to March 6, 2014. Patrons were the people and institutions that helped move the arts forward for present and future generations to enjoy and in which to participate. Patrons of the arts as were important in the early ages just as they are today.

ENTER CROWDSOURCING

Thanks to organizations like crowdfunding or crowdsourcing, the definition of who patrons are has expanded. Patronage is no longer just for the very wealthy, but for anyone who is interested in helping support a worthy project.

Instead of giving up and asking, “Why is this happening? Why is our Music Ministry being cut?” say instead, “Our Music Ministry is too important to let go, so what we are going to do about it?” That was the impetus the musicians of St. Bede had to start thinking about what could be done to mitigate the cuts proposed to their music ministry.

One Sunday morning, a choir member showed up with a newspaper article about aHymn-A-Thon Trinity Cathedral in Portland had recently done. Their event raised funds to support their choir’s upcoming English tour. We thought, “well, we wouldn’t be raising funds for a tour, but a Hymn-A-Thon could work equally well to raise funds to further our small parish music ministry.” Three weeks later, on the date we had chosen to “make something” happen, we held our own St. Bede Hymn-A-Thon.

What might surprise you is the number of people who really do believe in what you are doing. We can become myopic (see paranoid) in our vision and think that people are not interested in maintaining or furthering excellence in church music. However, as we found, there are a great number of people who respect and value the traditions of the past and want to sustain them for the future.

Last Sunday, March 2, 2014, Transfiguration Sunday, the dozen musicians of our small Episcopal parish in Forest Grove, Oregon embarked on a project which in the end was a transfiguring experience for all of us. Our project, a fund-raiser for the St. Bede Episcopal Church Music Ministry, was a Hymn-A-Thon: a marathon singing of one verse of all 720 hymns of the Episcopal Hymnal.

Our day of singing began at 8:00 a.m., included worship and a “concert hour” during which we sang all verses of over twenty “sponsored hymns,” and ended with a fervent singing of hymn #720 nearly 12 hours later. We were all part of an exalting, glorifying, spiritually changing experience to promote and further excellence in church music.

To quote one singer, “I was periodically overwhelmed by the worship involved in the act of singing hymns – praising God. I don’t know quite why I was surprised by that… but every once in a while I was struck dumb by the message, the music and the act of prayer that we call singing hymns. Thanks be to God!”

Contact me at jeannine@promotionmusic.org to learn how you can support the St. Bede Episcopal Church Hymn-a-Thon!

Small churches everywhere are struggling — struggling with a downturn of membership and the resulting downturn in financial resources. However, in the midst of this struggle there are those churches that are holding to a high standard of excellence in worship –and in excellence in the music of worship.

I hold up as an example, the very small parish church of St. Bede Episcopal in Forest Grove, Oregon. This church with its shrinking membership and resulting budget crisis made a bold decision to keep their professional organist and choir director. Difficult decision? Yes!

The musicians of the church numbering fewer than a dozen, have decided to implement fund-raisers during the year– not to take their choir on a European tour– but to make sure their parish church continues with excellence in its worship and music.

Their first fund-raiser is a barn-burner of a project for a dozen souls. You see they have decided to sing their way through the Episcopal Hymnal — all 720 hymns — in one day! March 2, 2014. That is a lot of singing and playing for this intrepid group, but they are enthused and ready to sing.

The fund-raising part? Oh yes! You can contribute to their project by pledging ten cents/hymn sung — or even a dollar/hymn sung. Or you can come sing with us — yes, I am the organist and choir director of this hard-working group. Or you can request that we sing ALL the verses of your favorite hymn during our hymn concert hour.

Want to join the project? Just drop me a note at jeannine@promotionmusic.org and I’m sure we can find a way that you can participate whether you are in Forest Grove, Oregon or Dornheim, Germany. I look forward to hearing from you!